Before the World Catfish Classics, above, I'd been enjoying fishing for trout - whether in matches or just pleasure fishing on Grafham, Elinor and Farmoor. My Dad and I also had a recent trip to Walthamstow, which I love, as it's normally always a challenge - the fish in there are top quality. We caught 7 between us fishing buzzers under the bung, all hard fighters that never gave up. They were all good fish over 3lb!
At the end of April, I was supposed to be fishing in the Lexus European Championships heat on Grafham, however, this was postponed due to very high winds. Some of the practice days my Dad and I fished though, were brillliant. We had 20+ rainbows each time we went, on a methods such as - the washing-line on a Di5 line with a blob, cormorant and booby, or straight line nymphing with a team of buzzers and a diawl bach on the top dropper, which I really enjoyed as some of the bites were hard hitters!
The next match both my Dad and I fished was the Thames Water Shield, a fundraiser for the EYF team. Most of the anglers decided to fish from the sailing club down to the first car park, as the strong wind was coming off their backs, making it easier to get a line out. I decided to gamble and fished more into the wind a bit further down the bank. By fishing boobies on a Di7 shooting head with a static or slow retrieve, I bagged up at 1.45pm with the biggest bag of the day at 19lb 10oz, and with the biggest fish of the match at 3lb 9oz. It was only enough to take second place though, as Kieran Bonas won with 26lb including time bonus as he had finished earlier than me. My weight with time bonus was only 25lb 10oz - well done mate. My Dad caught 6 too to come 10th out of around 30 anglers.
The following day, I was meant to be fishing a qualifier for the Airflo World Bank Masters catch-and-release match on Farmoor 1. However, due to being invited by my College to marshall the World Catfish Classics in Spain on the same day as the AWBM Final, it meant I would not be able to fish it if I got through, as my plane was leaving in the afternoon of the same day. My Dad offered to take my place and fished the qualifier instead. He had a slow start on his first couple of pegs, but chopping and changing between fishing the bung on a floating line or the sink tip with a team of buzzers, he started to catch, and by the end of the day he'd caught 9 and lost 4. It was enough to win the qualifier for the final!
Before the final, we did manage to slot in our first proper session of the year flyfishing for Zander and Perch at Grafham. The fishing wasn't easy but we caught a few Zander in the end around the 7-8lb bracket, including my first double of the year at just over 10lbs.
What was surprising was the amount of big bream that took our Zander flies and were hooked cleanly in the mouth when we boated them - 4 doubles including two other smaller ones that fell for our large baitfish imitations, including a new P.B for me at 10lb 5oz. This could have been because the fish were spawning and may have been attacking the flies out of aggression, but, I'm sure they eat baitfish though, as we've caught them on shads and curltails whilst jigging in reservoirs and on fenland drains!
Our main focus of attention after this was the Airflo World Bank Masters Final my Dad had qualified for on Elinor. We had a great practice trip there 6 days before, catching 26 rainbows on buzzers, diawl bachs, and boobies on a washing line set up. I even caught 4 off the top on popper hoppers and CDC shuttlecock buzzers as the day progressed.
Match day was very different though and didn't go very well for him. He had 9 bites, hooked and lost four but only managed to land one. He was frustrated to say the least, but it was just one of those days. He said some of the England Youths fished really well, a couple landing four or five fish. He realised he should have practised the previous day as pulling blobs seemed the way to go, not nymphing as had been 6 days previously. Unfortunately, he hadn't had the time to practise the day before the match though. Congratulations to Chris Jones who won it.
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